![\"KubinekShoesByBruceLeseurWEB[1]\"](\"http:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/KubinekShoesByBruceLeseurWEB1.jpg\")
<\/a>As many of you know, I was in a circus when I was younger, but even then, I never saw anything like what I witnessed on the stage of Theatre Raymond Kabbaz over the week-end! There was comedy, magic, improv, and stunts, all performed by just one lithe man, whose antics are absurd, in the best way. He\u2019s a circus unto himself! There was even a minute or two of old-timey opera! What more could an audience want from an eighty-five minute entertainment?!<\/p>\nThe audience was very lucky to see it there<\/em>, one of my favorite theatres in town, because every sightline is wonderful. No one missed even one nuance. This theatre continues to bring us the most innovative entertainment at all times, so this was indeed the perfect venue for Tom\u00e1\u0161\u2019 crazy and delightful laugh-filled show. (And Mr. X pointed-out how comfortable the seats are, too.)<\/p>\n In case you\u2019re not familiar with the place, TRK is a French theatre, (even though I just realized that I\u2019ve never actually seen anything there in that language!) But when the Theatre Director, Pierre Leloup, was introducing this show, he said he was at a loss of just how to characterize it. When a Frenchman<\/em> can’t describe an entity, you know it\u2019s something really different!<\/p>\n defies explanation, but since I must<\/em> try, for the sake of this review, I\u2019ll just say that he\u2019s part illusionist, part storyteller, part acrobat, and part daredevil. And he\u2019s one hundred percent entertaining! Even when things went a tad wrong that night, he was amusing. One stunt actually did<\/em> go awry on the first try, but I just assumed that it was part of the show until Mr. X broke it down for me.<\/p>\n I really didn\u2019t know what to expect going in, but Tom\u00e1\u0161\u2019 title, \u201cCertified Lunatic and Master of the Impossible,\u201d intrigued me. For some reason, from the very few images of the show that I had seen beforehand, I thought that it was going to be all visuals, with no talking. But I was dead wrong. Tom\u00e1\u0161 had patter going for most of the time, and it was all charming. And hilarious. We laughed the whole time. Even the kids<\/em> in the audience got his crazy humor.<\/p>\n The only time we weren\u2019t<\/em> laughing was when we were gasping in awe at a stunt he pulled that’s like no other I have ever seen. I don\u2019t want to ruin it for those of you who will see this show in the future, but it involved doing unbelievable physical moves while holding a glass of wine on his forehead and…playing the ukulele…behind his back! That one really blew my mind. Tom\u00e1\u0161 is far from a spring chicken, but he\u2019s more agile than people half his age!<\/p>\n The zaniness of Tom\u00e1\u0161 Kub\u00ednek. Photo by Karen Salkin.<\/p><\/div>\n Actually, Mr. X said the show had many<\/em> things he\u2019d never seen before, (beginning with some unusual vocal noises right off the top,) an assessment with which I whole-heartedly concur. And even more interesting is that we could not even attempt to guess what he was going to do next. It all blended seamlessly from mime into outright tomfoolery into skillful acrobatics into magic. So, when he climbed into the audience Roberto Benigni-style, I didn\u2019t know if he was going to wind-up dancing on our heads. (No worries–he didn\u2019t. But he did<\/em> wind-up scaling one guy\u2019s thighs a bit later on. Don\u2019t ask.)<\/p>\n Tom\u00e1\u0161\u00a0Kub\u00ednek is creative, ageless, and a true master of his craft. And a laugh riot. His website<\/em> is funny, as well! You have got<\/em> to read his list of where he\u2019s played in the past in the \u201cBiography\u201d section on there. (The link is at the bottom of this review.)<\/p>\n Mr. X was particularly taken with Tom\u00e1\u0161\u2019 colorful stories of his impoverished\u00a0youth. Even after researching him when we got home, I still don’t know if those tales are fanciful or true.\u00a0 Or a combo.\u00a0 But I have a feeling that they are<\/em> based at least somewhat in fact.<\/p>\n My only tiny<\/em> complaint with the whole shebang is that Tom\u00e1\u0161 played with\u00a0his hair more than I<\/em> used to do on my television show, which I did not think possible. Now I see why it annoyed my viewers so much. The first time or two, when he used the outcome of rearranging his top tresses for effect, it was amusing, but after that, it just took my attention away from the real<\/em> action too often. It made my mind wander to wondering about his age, what he looked like with more hair, and why he doesn\u2019t just cut it so that it will stand up when that\u2019s what he\u2019s going for. But that was the only negative to the entire show. On the other hand, if touching his hair is what gives Tom\u00e1\u0161 his amazing superpowers, then so be it.<\/p>\n My last note on the evening, for those of you who were there and witnessed this, is that Tom\u00e1\u0161 wasn\u2019t even aware that he had an opening act at TRK\u2014it was Mr. X\u2019s \u201canimated fireplace\u201d Christmas sweater! The assemblage loved it, so everyone was already in a great mood going in. (We had come directly from a Christmas party that night, with no time to change, which turned-out to be a good thing.)<\/p>\n Maybe the sweater will make a repeat performance this Wednesday if we have the time to attend the next presentation at Theatre Raymond Kabbaz\u2014a puppet show called The Toad Prince<\/em>, which looks enchanting. If it\u2019s like the rest of this theatre\u2019s fare, none of us will want to miss it!<\/p>\n www.theatreraymondkabbaz.com <\/a>\u00a0\u00a0www.kubinek.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" TOM\u00c1\u0160 KUB\u00cdNEK, CERTIFIED LUNATIC AND MASTER OF THE IMPOSSIBLE When I was a teen-ager, I had a crazy ex-boyfriend my friends and I dubbed \u201cThe Lunatic.\u201d (I would have used \u201cmaniac,\u201d but I had already bestowed that moniker on my sister\u2019s then-boyfriend, who now, as her husband, we refer to as the more appropriate \u201cSatan.\u201d)<\/p>\n<\/a>